Armando Rodríguez's murder: Two years, no justice

Two years have passed since the killing of El Diario journalist José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, known to
his friends as "El Choco," and no legal process has begun to shed light on the
crime committed on November 13, 2008. Faced with the reality of impunity, his
widow, Blanca Martínez, asserted that her only hope lies in God.

"It's difficult to have faith in the authorities at this
time given all that has happened, all that has been left undone, all they have
omitted," said Martínez, also a journalist, during an event organized by Rodríguez's
El Diario colleagues that
commemorated the second anniversary of El Choco's death.

"I think it's terrible. There are no words to describe it. There
are signs that they don't care. It's terrible, perverse," she added, standing with
her three children.

In this context, journalists from El Diario have denounced the impunity surrounding this crime.

"Two years later our rage is even greater, because we see
the ease with which the president of the republic, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa,
lies when he publicly announces that they have detained suspects in relation to
Armando's death, when actually no one has been remanded, by the power of the
state or federal law, to answer for this act," the journalists stated in a
letter published on November 13 on the front page of El Diario.

Although the Mexican head of state has announced at multiple
forums and meetings that an arrest has been made in the case of El Choco's
murder, El Diario confirmed with authorities
that the two legal bodies haven't even issued arrest warrants, much less brought
federal and state investigations before the authorities.

The journalists used this somber anniversary to call
attention to the fact that in this environment of impunity another colleague,
photographer Luis Carlos Santiago, was killed September 16. To date, there are
no leads on tracking down the perpetrators. They also brought to light that, in
an effort to overcome their poor performance, government officials have come up
with a political solution baptized "the journalist security protocol" with the
ostensible intention of safeguarding media workers at risk.

Nonetheless, three cases directly related to El Diario--a photographer that was
wounded in the
attack on Luis Carlos Santiago and the threats launched against two other photojournalists
in Chihuahua--to demonstrate that said protocol is a simple legalistic hologram
with no real substance due to the fact that there are neither the resources nor
the will to implement it.

In this way, El Choco's colleagues elucidated how the
absence of the pursuit of justice in the crimes committed against José Armando,
and Luis Carlos, adds an additional offense to that of their murders.

During the ceremony, Armando's friends and colleagues
emphasized his virtues as a professional and as a human being, and called on
the union and on citizens to keep pressing for justice and to work for improved
social conditions.